Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-345) and index.

Acknowledgments. Introduction / Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Colleen Glenn. 1 Extreme makeovers : "Does this film make me look fat?" Celebrity, gender and I'm Still Here / NIna K. Martin -- Beauty to beast: the rebirth of Mickey Rourke / Colleen Glenn -- Hilary Swank and Charlize Theron: empathy, veracity, and the biopic / Megan Carrigy -- Broken nose and all: Daniel Day-Lewis and the performance of disruption / Dennis Bingham. 2 Suffering in silence : Michael Jackson and the pain behind the mirror: a photo essay / Todd Gray -- Adiós Margarita Cansino, hello Rita Hayworth / Linda Rader Overman -- Baby, it's cold out in Hollywood: Rock Hudson's multiple masculinities / Rebecca Bell-Metereau. 3 Growing pains : Misfittings: The Misfits as Marilyn Monroe's spiritual autobiography / Peter J. Bailey -- Hollywood's "proper stranger": Natalie Wood's knowing innocence and uncertain experience / Cynthia Lucia -- It's the years and the mileage: Harrison Ford grown old onscreen / Virginia Luzón-Aguado. 4 Blood, freckles, and tears: Sissy Spacek's surface subversions and New Hollywood's abject feminism / Alison Hoffman-Han -- Love hurts, but not too much: Julia Roberts's scenes of suffering / R. Barton Palmer -- Re/inventing Halle Berry: mixed-race stardom and the melodrama of female victimhood / Charles Burnetts.

The authors "assemble thirteen scholars to consider fourteen stars whose careers have been defined by suffering on- or off-screen. Together, these essays question assumptions that an actor's ability to project an enduring image-both symbolic and physical-is necessary for box-office success, demonstrating instead that disruptions often shape and direct the star image. Contributors in this collection examine a wide range of stars from the last seventy years. Some essays deal with actors who have transformed temporarily for a role, or permanently, through aging or accident, such as Joaquin Phoenix, Daniel Day-Lewis, Mickey Rourke, Charlize Theron, and Hilary Swank. Other essays consider stars' attempts to conceal aspects of themselves from the public in order to maintain a palatable public image, including Rita Hayworth, Rock Hudson, and Michael Jackson. Some explore typecasting and audience expectations, noting how struggles with marriage, divorce, and aging intersect in the images of Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, and Harrison Ford. A final set considers Sissy Spacek, Julia Roberts, and Halle Berry as women who reconfigure negative press and restrictive gender and racial expectations to their advantage, managing public perceptions of suffering in ways that flummox their critics"-- Source other than Library of Congress.

Description based on print version record.